I have never made a pillow cover with an invisible zipper, I have always wanted to try. A few months ago (or even a year ago by now…) I attempted to do just that and that’s as far as I got… three times I ripped out the stitches and with each time grew more frustrated and thought this isn’t for me.

I can’t stand not being able to do something successfully (I’m especially irritated when it is sewing stuff I’m not good at). So I decided since we got in some super cute Aviary fabric by Joel Dewberry it’s time for me to suck it up and try again.

After an attempt of a not so good invisible zipper, I tried again, and again, and each time it got better. So good that you can’t even tell where the invisible zipper is! Hence the name invisible zipper…

So here are the pics, I couldn’t stop after just two or three, I had to make six, and I actually have three more cut and ready to go! Who knew what I couldn’t even do a week ago would be my new favorite thing to make.

I like them all so much, I can’t even tell you which is my favorite. I am rather partial to damask, so if I had to choose one… it would be between the damask and the bird print.

Next pillows to be made will be out of Wrenly and Countdown to Christmas, can’t wait to see how they turn out!

I occasionally break away from our little shop, but even when I do it always seems to revolve around sewing these days. On Friday I was able to spend some time with some good sewing friends, the night was filled with talk, games and good food. Seriously, there was not one single thing I didn’t like in our gigantic pot luck – well, I take that back, I didn’t have any of Ruth’s potato salad because of the camouflaged onions (sorry Ruth, I loved your baked beans though!)

Here are the ribs we had – they were out of this world! Wonderful job Deb!!

Take a look at the dessert show case… oh my… and to top it off, I forgot to take a pictures of the mile high brownies when they were put out!

This pie was so perfect looking, you may be wondering if it’s even real. It’s real, and it was the most wonderful blackberry pie I have ever had!

This is my main squeeze Diezel, I always get a kick out of seeing him – such a personality on this “little” guy.

There is nothing like getting together with your sewing friends, I hope every sewer has a group they can go to share their projects, ideas and enjoy the great company. Friends are like fabric, you can never have enough!

If you are anything like me, you have a ton of scraps. I found this great book that has a game plan for all those scraps that you just don’t know what to do with. The book is called Cut the Scraps by Joan Ford.

It gives an easy, organized plan to follow so you can start using your stash of scraps. Basically there are three different sizes of squares that are cut from the scraps, sizes found to be the most commonly used. I haven’t dove in and cut all my scraps yet, but I did get a good start as you can see.

I figure that even if I find that cutting all my scraps into squares doesn’t work for me, it will certainly cut down on storage (all seven tubs of them) for all my scraps and get them more organized; I would say that’s a win-win situation.

I recently had the pleasure of making a baby autograph quilt. My customer had come to me shortly before her baby shower with some fabric she had already purchased, asking me what type of autograph quilt we could make with the fabrics she had purchased. There were so many bright colors, I had a great pattern in mind. I think it turned out really cute!

Here is a close up of the quilting. She chose a jungle theme for the quilting, it has giraffes, lions and elephants. The variegated thread goes really well with all the colors in the quilt.

What a great quilt for little Sydney to be able to cherish through the years.

So on Sunday I decided I wanted to do a quick little project… but wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do. I’m a fan of those cute little fabric baskets, you know the ones I’m talking about, with the little handles that you can stick anything in and it will still look cute.

Well here it is –

I used fabric from one of the new lines we just got in – Jovial by Basic Grey. How frickin’ cute is this?! Christmas-y without screaming it.

I love the jumbo ric-rac and the little somethin’ somethin’ it adds. Imagine all the possibilities with the different fabric you could use, it was super easy and quick to make. It may just be my Christmas gift of choice this year… I better get started on making the first twenty so I don’t run out of time like usual.

It’s been pretty quiet around here, I have been finishing up some UFO’s and working on some new patterns… yep attempting to make my own patterns. I already have two done, if you have been by our shop than you probably have already seen them.

The weather has been gorgeous outside, except for the one nasty storm that rolled through taking out the power at our shop for three days. While enjoying the warm weather, I looked up at our pergola to find this…

This sweet little bird has built a nest under the wisteria on our pergola. She has been a welcomed and well-behaved house guest, causing no problems and not making a single tweet. It’s been a couple of weeks since she has been nesting, and I can’t believe that last weekend was it – her and the babies have already left the nest!

I think our dog misses watching her through the window all day… she probably just takes naps more often now – making her awake for a total of 2 hours during the day when we’re not here.

Here’s a little update on the quilts for Japan – we were able to piece, quilt and bind four quilts to send to Japan. Here are the pictures of the four we sent, check out the specifics on our store blog!

Don’t forget, our Block-a-thon is Thursday May 12th from 5 – 8 pm, we will be piecing together blocks to be put together at a later time for charity quilts. Bring your machines and we will provide the fabric and dinner. Hope to see you there!